Journal of Endocrinology Guest Editors, Professor Decio Eizirik and Dr James Cantley, have commissioned a series of reviews from leaders in the field. Professor Eizirik explains, “The discovery of insulin was one of these rare events in the history of medical research that acutely changed a mortal disease into a chronic but treatable one. Unfortunately, the treatment of diabetes remains a challenge, and many patients eventually develop chronic complications associated with the disease that decrease both their life span and life quality. A central component of nearly all forms of diabetes is a relative or absolute pancreatic beta cell deficiency; the present series of articles provides a timely overview on how beta cells function or fail, and lead to disease.

“We hope that this will trigger additional research that may translate into novel therapies to preserve beta cells in diabetes. None of these subsequent steps will be ‘spectacular jumps’ as the discovery of insulin, but step by step they will improve the life of diabetic patients and, hopefully, one day, allow prevention of the disease in many of them.”

Watch the introductory video and read the issue.